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Saturday, April 7, 2012

G is for Geocaching

Geocaching is one of my favorite hobbies. Although I had wanted to go Geocaching for a long time, it was not until last year that I finally started. We were headed out on a week-long road trip when I suggested we try to figure out how it is done. Lo and behold, I found out that there was an "app" that I could download on my phone.

Let me give a brief introduction to Geocaching in case someone does not know about it - it is basically a game of treasure hunting using a GPS device. There are over 1.7 million "caches" hidden all over the world. The GPS coordinates and a description of the "cache" can be found on a centralized website. There are several varieties of Geocaches, from the micro-sized ones to those the size of an ammo box. All caches contain a log book to be signed when located and typically some type of treasure so that you can "take something, leave something." Geocachers follow the Geocachers' Creed.

Back to how we got started, our first stop on the trip was downtown Atlanta, After we got checked into the hotel, I got online at www.geocaching.com to see if there were any nearby Geocaches hidden and sure enough, there was one located right outside our hotel. We went out to search but to no avail, I was so disappointed. We went back to the room and looked for another one nearby. Off we went with high hopes only to be disappointed again!! Since we had never seen a "cache" before and we weren't quite sure what we were looking for, we decided we must be doing something wrong. On a whim, we thought it would help if we actually had a GPS unit rather than using the "app" on the phone. The next day, we went shopping and at our next hotel stop we repeated the process and went off on the search again. Our first find was so exciting and we all four caught the bug - although they all defer to me as being the official Geocacher in the family.

My GPS is pictured above and I now have a backpack dedicated to my Geocaching paraphernalia that I can just grab when heading out for a hunt. Have you ever tried it? If not, you should. It is so much fun and I love the challenge!

P.S. I prefer using the "app" on my phone over the GPS these days, but my husband and boys still prefer the GPS.

4 comments:

I have never heard of this before Pati. I just googled geocatching in Australia and low and behold there are caches all around my home state. You would have to be on a massive road trip to get to all of them as they are quite some miles apart but it looks like fun.

It is a great way to get out and explore places you might not ever get to, however, many times we've been out having dinner somewhere and I'll use my phone to look up nearby geocaches and almost always find a couple. There is no way, I'll ever get to all of them!